The G8 Must Take Action to Make AIDS History

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We, the undersigned organizations, call on leaders of the G8 nations to make good on their existing promises and to commit additional resources to make AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria history through commitments on these key issues:

FUNDING THE FIGHT AGAINST HIV/AIDS
G8 countries have endorsed funding for a Global AIDS Vaccine Enterprise, and are debating mechanisms to increase overall donor aid, such as the International Finance Facility (IFF). But a G8 focus on vaccine research and development with no commitment to closing the massive funding gap is unacceptable. Likewise, discussion of a mechanism for increasing donor aid is not a substitute for immediate increases in donor country spending in order to fully fund the fight against AIDS, and address the needs of the 40 million people living with HIV around the world.

G8 leaders must:


• Immediately provide the funding needed to meet the goals of the WHO-led campaign to treat 3 million of the estimated 6 million HIV-positive people who are in urgent clinical need of HIV treatment by 2005 ("3 by 5").
• Increase funding for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, including palliative care, to reach a total of at least $12 billion in 2005 and at least $19.9 billion by 2007. Provide an additional $6 billion annually to fund the fight against tuberculosis and malaria and $4.4 billion to address the needs of orphaned and vulnerable children in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Fully fund the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (GFATM) and commit to predictable annual financing based on donor country income and the GFATM's need. The GFATM requires more than $2.3 billion in 2005 and $3.5 billion in 2006 to finance grant rounds five and six, as well as grant renewals.

DEBT CANCELLATION TO FIGHT AIDS
The massive external debts owed by poor countries are greatly hindering the fight against HIV/AIDS. Billions of dollars are redirected to servicing debts, when these funds should be used to focus on urgent domestic issues, including addressing the AIDS crisis.

G8 leaders must:


• Immediately commit to 100% cancellation of the debts owed to the IMF and World Bank for all impoverished countries, without harmful or externally imposed economic conditions. Cancellation should be financed through the use of IMF gold reserves. As necessary, World Bank accumulated profits, provided that these do not penalize other developing countries, and additional voluntary contributions from wealthy countries should be considered for financing debt cancellation.
• The funding freed up from cancelled debt must be additional to donor funding needed to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

HIV/AIDS TREATMENT AND ACCESS TO MEDICINES
Lack of access to HIV treatment and care results in 8500 deaths each day worldwide. G8 countries must lead the worldŐs response to this catastrophe.

G8 leaders must:


• Ensure the treatment targets of the "3x5" campaign are met: 3 million people on treatment by the end of 2005.
• Commit to a timetable for expanding access to HIV/AIDS care in order to achieve universal access to free treatment by 2010.
• At minimum, change existing and pending bilateral and regional Free Trade Agreements to comply with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health to ensure that such agreements protect public health and promote access to medicines for all.
• Urge developing countries to use all available flexibilities to protect public health and promote access to medicines for all as reaffirmed by the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health.

SUPPORT FOR HEALTH CARE WORKERS
An immediate obstacle preventing the scale up of access to HIV treatment, as well as tuberculosis and malaria, is the lack of trained health care workers in developing countries, particularly in African countries.

G8 leaders must:


• Commit sufficient resources, including funding for salary support and other recurrent costs, to ensure recruitment and retention of an adequate number of trained health care workers to deliver essential health interventions, including HIV prevention, treatment and care to all who need it, especially in remote and rural areas. Community-based approaches to health care delivery, led by women and men living with HIV/AIDS and their peers, should be given particular support and attention.
• Provide long-term investments to develop sufficient education capacity in developing countries to train needed numbers of health care workers, particularly to meet needs in remote and rural areas.
• Change the macroeconomic policies promoted by the IMF to ensure that IMF policies enable countries to allocate adequate funds to develop health systems necessary to recruit, train, and retain health workers, including through providing sufficient retention packages.

HIV PREVENTION
Comprehensive, accurate, science-based HIV prevention saves lives and should work in conjunction with treatment scale up efforts.

G8 leaders must:


• Support comprehensive HIV prevention interventions that are driven by scientific evidence and best practice, not ideology. End attacks on prevention interventions that are effective in fighting HIV, such as condom use and access to sterile syringes.
• Stop pitting funding and other support for HIV prevention against funding and support for HIV treatment. The success of the fight against the AIDS pandemic is dependent upon a massive scale up of both prevention and treatment efforts.

Signed by:

• ACAM African Communities against Malaria, USA
• ACT UP Cleveland, USA
• ACT UP Philadelphia, USA
• Act Up-Paris, France
• Action Against AIDS, Germany
• ActionAid International
• Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), UK
• Africa Action, USA
• Africa Japan Forum, Japan
• African Communities Against Malaria (ACAM), USA
• African Services Committee, USA
• Agua Buena Human Rights Association, Costa Rica
• AIDES, France
• AIDS and Rights Alliance of Southern Africa, Namibia
• AIDS Empowerment and Treatment International (AIDSETI), USA
• AIDS Foundation of Chicago, USA
• AIDS Saint John, Canada
• AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), USA
• AIDS-Hilfe Baden-WŸrttemberg e.V., Germany
• Alliance Rights, Nigeria
• American Jewish World Service (AJWS), USA
• Archdiocese of Mombasa CBHC and AIDS Relief Project, Kenya
• €rzte fŸr die Dritte Welt (German Doctors for Developing Countries), Germany
• Association de Lutte Contre le Sida (ALCS), Morocco
• Association of Churches and Missions in Southwest Germany, Germany
• Association of Protestant Churches and Missions (EMW), Germany
• Association SunAids, Cameroon
• Better Africa Foundation, USA
• Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange (CATIE), Canada
• Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Canada
• CARE International
• Christian Aid, UK
• Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), USA
• Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe e.V., Germany
• European AIDS Treatment Group, Belgium
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Division for World Mission
• Evangelisch-methodistische Kirche Mission und internationale kirchliche Zusammenarbeit, Germany
• Foreign Policy In Focus, USA
• Global AIDS Alliance, USA
• Global Exchange, USA
• Global Network of People with HIV/AIDS (GNP+), Europe
• Grupo de Incentivo a Vida (GIV), Brazil
• Grupo de Trabajo sobre Tratamientos del VIH, Spain
• Grupo Portugus de Activistas sobre Tratamentos de VIH/SIDA (GAT), Portugal
• Harm Reduction Coalition, USA
• Health & Development Networks, Ireland/Thailand
• Health Action International, Africa
• Health Alliance International
• Health Equity Project, USA
• Health GAP (Global Access Project), USA
• Healthpartners, Kenya
• Help the Hospices, UK
• HIV i-Base, UK
• Hope for Children, UK
• Ikonzo Musanda Self Help Group, Kenya
• Institute for International Health and Development, UK
• Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development, Canada
• International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW)
• International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO), USA
• Kindernothilfe e.V., Germany
• Lifelong AIDS Alliance, USA
• Marie Stopes International
• Massive Effort Campaign, Switzerland
• missio Aachen, Germany
• Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, Justice and Peace Desk
• National AIDS Trust (NAT), UK
• Network of Ivorian Associations Living with HIV (RIP+), Cote D'Ivoire
• Organization for Social Development of Unemployed Youth (OSDUY), Bangladesh
• Orphelins-sida-international, France
• Osservatorio Italiano sull'Azione Globale contro l'AIDS, Italy
• Oxfam International
• People and Planet, UK
• Physicians for Human Rights, USA
• Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines, Philippines
• Public Personalities Against AIDS Trust, Zimbabwe
• RESULTS Canada
• Russian Harm Reduction Network, Russia
• Save the Children, UK
• Shepherd University Student Global AIDS Campaign, USA
• SolidaritŽ Sida, France
• Stop AIDS Campaign, UK
• Student Campaign for Child Survival, USA
• Student Global AIDS Campaign, USA
• Students Against Global AIDS, Canada
• Students Partnership Worldwide, UK
• Tanzania NGOs Alliance Against Malaria (TaNAAM) Tanzania
• Tanzania Treatment Access Movement (TATAM), Tanzania
• TBTV.org
• Tearfund, UK
• The AIDS Institute, USA
• Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), South Africa
• UK Coalition of People Living with HIV and AIDS, UK
• Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA, Australia
• Vivat International, USA and Germany
• VSO Regional AIDS Initiative of Southern Africa (RAISA)
• VSO. UK
• Washington Offica on Africa, USA
• Women Empowerment Literacy and Development Organization, Pakistan
• WTO Watch Qld, Australia
• Youth Empowered to Succeed (YES), Kenya
• Zambia Malaria Foundation, Zambia